President Momoi Kun by Nishida Higashi

Rating: 6
Juné 2013 - Akaneshinsha 2011 - Opera 2008
1 volume
Translation: Laura Russell

I don't know how DMP choose their BL print licenses but I've long suspected that, outside of established popular series like Viewfinder, Tyrant Falls in Love, or recent acquisition Saezuru Tori wa Habatakanai, the strategy is anything goes, and popularity back in Japan is not a necessary part of their criteria. This has resulted in some real stinkers, a lot of mediocre titles, and some occasional gems from lesser-known mangaka. President Momoi Kun is not quite a gem but it is by a mangaka I like but thought had little of hope of being published in English, and so in this instance I'm grateful to Digital for their seemingly filterless approach to licensing.

President Momoi Kun is a BL gag manga, with the emphasis very much on the comedy. Momoi starts a new job as company president after the previous president, his father, was driven out of the company. He's known as the idiot son, a puppet president, but this doesn't deter Momoi in the slightest, he's there for one reason only...

He soon falls for a colleague and tries to win his love, while largely ignoring all the office politics and intrigues surrounding him.

The story doesn't take itself too seriously, any threat of sobriety is soon relieved with a joke (good or consciously bad). There's a lot of fun poked at the BL genre and manga in general. Whether you'll like this manga is mostly dependent on how you find Nishida's humour. While there's a lot of slapstick sort of comedy in the story, I think Nishida is an intelligent, thoughtful writer, and this is reflected in her work, whatever she writes. Her main characters never become caricatures, beneath the surface shenanigans, they still come across as regular people with normal hopes and fears like the rest of us. Amidst the gags, a sweet and considered romance develops between Momoi and his crush and their relationship serves as the backbone to an often featherbrained story.

Rather incongruously, in the middle of the volume there's a side story about one of the supporting characters, unrelated to the main plot. This story is played entirely straight and, though it feels out of place to the lightheartedness of the rest of the volume, it serves as a spotlight on Nishida's more serious storytelling talents. She's a writer who prefers to show rather than tell, leaving a lot to the reader's imagination, and this trait is more effectively used in the serious side story about a man who has waited twenty years for the man he loves to be released from prison.

Nishida doesn't have the pretty style of art that can appeal to readers who buy based on artwork, nor does she write emotional heart-tugging stories that can easily reel readers in, instead she offers more measured, often deliberate, perceptive storytelling. President Momoi Kun isn't the best showcase of her style but it's certainly much more than the frivolous shtick it appears to be.